Chapter 41
Chapter 41
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 41
Chapter Title: Infiltration
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‘...What the hell is this?’
A middle-aged man with the bearing of a scholar-official.
Sagong Chan, leader of the Heavenly Light Corps—one of Tyrant Heaven Fortress’s fifteen combat units—and known in the martial world by his moniker, Wind-Chasing Sword, stared blankly at the scene unfolding before him.
Even for him, hardened by over twenty years in the jianghu, what he had just witnessed with his own eyes was utterly incomprehensible.
‘What just happened?’
To make sense of it, Sagong Chan carefully replayed his recent memories.
The ‘plan’ had progressed faster than expected, so before launching the main phase, he decided to clean up the useless pawns.
The prime example was Jo Un-chil, the proprietor of this gambling den.
A greedy cur who had flipped his loyalty for the massive reward Sagong Chan offered, if only briefly.
Of course, Sagong Chan had never intended to honor such a promise with a lowly worm like that from the start.
He had always planned to silence him with death when the time came—and today was that day.
But out of nowhere, a masked figure appeared.
When the man spouted nonsense about being some temporary upright gentleman, Sagong Chan had been wary beneath his confusion.
The stranger’s demeanor was far too calm and composed for a mere common thief.
But then he claimed a corpse had put out an assassination request, and Sagong Chan realized he’d misjudged.
‘A madman.’
He handed the masked man over to his subordinates, then turned his gaze back to Jo Un-chil.
He meant to finish the delayed business, lunatic ravings be damned.
“Guh... grrrk...”
But a foaming gurgle halted his steps.
“What...?”
Turning back, the sight that greeted him was unbelievable even with his own eyes.
The five elite subordinates he had personally trained and selected were being unilaterally slaughtered by a single man.
Dodging their attacks with inhuman speed, he struck fatal blows.
They barely managed one exchange.
Four of the five met their end in that single clash.
“P-Please...! Spare me...!”
The last survivor, lucky or not, begged pathetically in terror.
But the masked man severed his neck in one stroke.
In an instant, the masked figure had slain every subordinate he’d brought to the gambling den.
As those eyes turned to him, Sagong Chan flinched involuntarily.
“Now, just you left?”
A flat tone, like commenting on the last side dish at a meal.
Its casualness made it all the more chilling.
“...You. What the hell are you?”
“You think I’d wear a mask if I planned to tell you?”
The masked man approached with heavy steps.
Sagong Chan retreated in kind, stumbling back.
Jo Un-chil and his men—who had trembled in fear of him moments ago—now eyed him with strange looks.
‘Damn it...!’
Humiliation burned in those gazes, twisting Sagong Chan’s face.
‘Daring to look at me like that...! Do you know who I am!?’
I am Sagong Chan, Wind-Chasing Sword, leader of the Heavenly Light Corps—the martial world’s greatest faction, Tyrant Heaven Fortress!
You filthy worms have no right to stare like that!
Rage boiled in Sagong Chan’s chest, summoning reckless courage.
He halted his retreat, clenched his jaw, and drew his sword.
-Shing
Gripping it with both hands, he aimed it at the masked man.
The figure stopped, staring at Sagong Chan’s blade before readjusting his own grip with practiced ease.
‘So that upright gentleman nonsense was just lunacy after all.’
The opponent was properly trained in martial arts.
Certain of it, Sagong Chan spoke.
“You. Who sent you?”
“...Huh? What’re you talking about?”
The masked man tilted his head, as if the question baffled him.
Grinding his teeth, Sagong Chan bellowed.
“Don’t play dumb! I don’t know how you found out, but you slipped in while I was separated from my men to kill me, right!?”
This was the conclusion he’d reached after racking his brains over the masked man’s identity.
The initial upright gentleman spiel was likely a ploy to lower his guard; this bastard had come to kill him on someone’s orders from the start.
And he had a guess who that someone was.
“Namgung Clan, is it? You lot just took it lying down all this time, but you had this ace up your sleeve...!”
In Sagong Chan’s mind, the masked man had already become a secret weapon secretly nurtured by the Namgung Clan.
“...What bullshit is that?”
The masked man reacted with disbelief, but Sagong Chan, lost in his own convictions, didn’t hear it.
‘I need to report this. If I’m not careful, the plan could fall apart...!’
For the grand undertaking, he could endure a moment’s shame.
Glancing sidelong at the stairs leading below, Sagong Chan gritted his teeth.
*
“......”
I stared at the middle-aged man spinning his wild delusions with utter disbelief.
None of it was even close?
...Wait, the Namgung Clan part? Well, I did come from there, sort of.
I shook my head at the ridiculous turn my thoughts had taken.
“Enough bullshit. You gonna fight or talk? If talk, stick your neck out nice and quiet.”
“......”
No reply to my words—just constant sidelong glances.
Following his gaze, I spotted stairs leading down.
This bastard... no way?
Sure enough, the middle-aged man bolted straight for the stairs.
I let out a hollow chuckle at the sight.
Running away like that? Didn’t he just dramatically draw his sword?
Watching his fleeing back in disbelief, I channeled internal energy through my Dragon Spring Acupoint and dashed forward, kicking him squarely in the back.
“Argh...!”
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Tumbling across the floor from the blow, the middle-aged man faced me blocking the stairs, sweat beading coldly on his brow.
Then, as if to say something, he slowly opened his mouth.
“M-Me...”
“Shut up and die.”
Cutting him off, I lunged and swung my sword.
He raised his blade in panic, barely deflecting my strike.
-Clang!
“You treacherous...!”
“Not from the guy who tried to run!”
-Clang! Clang! Clang!
I unleashed a flurry of strikes like a whirlwind.
The middle-aged man barely parried the relentless onslaught, retreating step by step.
“Hmm?”
For someone who’d tried to flee outright, his responses were surprisingly solid, if strained.
Definitely a cut above that Dark Heaven Corps vice-leader.
What rank was this guy in Tyrant Heaven Fortress? Corps leader maybe?
...Nah, no way.
A corps leader wouldn’t handle dirty work like this.
Lost in such thoughts, I swung harder.
-Kaang!
His sword flew back with a sharper ring of metal.
I slammed a heavy kick into his exposed chest.
“Gah!?”
He flew backward, rolling ignobly across the blood-smeared floor.
The messy surface quickly dirtied his once-pristine attire.
Infuriated by his disheveled state, the middle-aged man roared with a flushed face.
“You worm! How dare you humiliate me like this!”
After slaughtering all these people for petty reasons, getting kicked once counts as humiliation?
Listening further would just sour my mood.
I closed in on the man, still struggling to rise, and brought my sword down.
He frantically raised his own.
“Urk...!”
A sharp clash of metal mixed with his groan.
Beneath the straining blade, his face twisted in agony.
Staring at it, I briefly lifted our locked swords, then slammed down with full force.
Infusing the essence of the heavy sword—hammer striking anvil.
-Kwaang!
“Kraaak!?”
A strike far heavier than before.
Unable to withstand it, his sword shattered his left collarbone and embedded itself.
Screaming in pain, he seemed to fight on, but with the blade in his shoulder, his left arm was useless.
No way he could hold.
Circulating internal energy through both arms, I pressed down harder.
His sword dug slowly, then deeper.
Soon, his surrender came.
“Stop, stop!”
Of course, I didn’t.
This wasn’t sparring; no reason to halt on command.
“Guh... grrr...!”
The blade sank further.
His face flushed crimson with pain, trembling violently.
Death’s terror crept into his bloodshot eyes.
And when it reached that point, his plea was... predictably textbook.
“K-Kill me, and you won’t get away clean. T-Tyrant Heaven Fortress will hunt you to the ends of hell...”
“The Dark Heaven vice-leader said the same crap. You guys take classes for that?”
“...What?”
Momentarily stunned by my words.
I didn’t miss the opening—slammed down with everything.
-Kwachik!
“Cough-!?”
The blade pierced straight to his heart.
Spitting blood with a dazed expression, he gawked alternately at the sword in his chest and my face, mouth agape, before rolling back his eyes.
The middle-aged man collapsed limply onto the wooden floor in death.
I gazed down impassively, then tossed my sword aside carelessly.
-Clang, clang!
The shrill ring of metal echoed as I returned to the woman who had died unjustly.
Her eyes still open, brimming with resentment.
Crouching beside her, I gently closed them—when I sensed someone approaching.